Tennis shuts out two opponents for much-needed wins

More refreshing than the warm spring breeze, two wins last weekend broke an eight-game… More refreshing than the warm spring breeze, two wins last weekend broke an eight-game losing streak for the Pitt women’s tennis team.

The Panthers handily defeated St. Bonaventure and Carnegie Mellon University on Saturday and Sunday respectively, improving their record to 5-8 and 0-4 in the Big East.

“Prior to yesterday’s match, we faced eight very tough teams in a row,” coach George Dieffenbach said on Sunday after Pitt secured a victory against CMU.

Pitt’s competition last weekend did not prove to be nearly as strong in opposition as the Panthers had grown accustomed to.

Pitt 7, St. Bonaventure 0

Pitt dominated the Bonnies from the outset of a match that proved to be incredibly lopsided.

The Panthers took the doubles’ point, sweeping all three doubles matches.

In the first seed of doubles, juniors Jill Williams and Laura Pegula buried their opponents 8-1.

Pitt continued to display its supremacy by sweeping the singles matches.

Freshman Becky Emmers won at the fourth seed of singles 6-1, 6-0, while Williams returned to play at first singles and won 6-4, 6-2.

Rounding out the Panthers’ control of singles play, senior Jena Fiore secured a victory in the sixth seed 6-0, 6-1.

Visiting St. Bonaventure could not get a hold of a win anywhere against the Panthers.

Dieffenbach believed the degree of intensity in his team did not swagger as a result of playing against a team that was not on par with Pitt’s recent opponents.

“As you go from match to match to match, the secret is improving no matter what your level of competition is,” he said.

On Saturday, the Panthers traveled to Monroeville, Pa., although the match against the Bonnies was at home for Pitt.

This season Pitt divided its home competitions between two locations, the Oxford Athletic Club in Monroeville and a collection of courts in Washington’s Landing, as there are no facilities provided for the team locally in Oakland.

“It would be nice to have our own facilities,” Dieffenbach said, commenting on the level of discomfort created through the team not having a steady home court.

Pitt 9, CMU 0

On Sunday, the Panthers made the very short trip to CMU on a day beautiful for tennis: no wind and warm weather.

The teams played the match under the nine-point format, in which each doubles match counts as its own individual point, because CMU is a Division III team.

As with the Bonnies, Pitt prevented the Tartans from acquiring a single victory.

The Panthers rarely seemed to struggle and pounced on CMU very early. Pitt swept the doubles matches.

The first doubles team of Williams and Pegula defeated Christina Weng and Annie Bosler of CMU 8-2.

Senior Nikki Borza and junior Hayley Hughes gained another point for Pitt by winning the second seed of doubles 8-4.

Borza also won the second seed of singles play 6-1, 6-0, and moved one step closer to reaching her 100th career win as a Panther.

The win was Borza’s 98th career win at Pitt, according to Dieffenbach.

“I played better my second set,” Borza said of her straight set victory in singles, crediting her improvement to better concentration.

Borza’s performance and the win for the Panthers marked a drastic turnaround from recent results for Pitt.

“Especially after we had a rough stretch there, we had a lot of good teams in a row and I think that helped our intensity a lot,” Borza added. “Now playing these weaker teams I feel like we’re really ready for the competition.”

The weekend allowed Dieffenbach to become definitively more optimistic than he could have been as the coach of a team wallowing in a record far below even.

“At one point in the season we were 3-8, now we’re 5-8. Our purpose here, I’m thinking, is to get above .500,” he said. “We’ve got our work cut out for us but [Saturday]’s match and [Sunday]’s match give us confidence.”